Spectral Lore – Gnosis CD

“Gnosis” is the second part in a series of shorter and more experimental releases that Spectral Lore has undertaken for 2015, each focusing on a specific style, as opposed to a regular SL full-length, which is a collection of several kinds of music. The album was born out of the idea of experimenting with oriental music, using a metal instrumentation. It was decided by Ayloss not to study the music beforehand, but to invoke the unconscious remembrance of it (one that is very present in the substratum of Greek folk music and culture) in order to get it out distorted and mixed, hopefully in an interesting way, with the usual elements of metal and western scales, to create thusly a kind of fusion.
This concept brought forth several ideas, which became the basis for not only the lyrics of the album, but for a wider philosophical and spiritual meditation which took place around the making of the album. Gnosis is a greek word meaning “Knowledge” and is used in the sense of mystical enlightenment. The synthesis of opposites, of conscious and unconscious, of the seemingly opposing cultures of East and West, of body and “soul”, rationality and irrationality, to attain higher levels of reality. “Gnosis” goes as far as to propose a kind of evolutionary, emerging (out of matter) spirituality, in which man lies in an important place as part of the cosmos.

The vocals in this release are not uttered but performed as spaced-out whispers and screams, to further enhance the tension between current and transitory states. Mastered by Colin Marston of Krallice fame, the album also features two compositions of acoustic nature, including actual oriental instruments such as tamboura and darbuka. Although the album’s length reaches 49 minutes, it was decided to be called an EP to keep up with the initial concept and to point out its experimental nature.